It also sounds like Criste will start or get significant PT on Saturday and either LG Charles (ankle) or or RG Atoe will be on the bench. When Criste came in @ Oregon, where did he play?
Yes and more so, Miles has gone backwards because opposing defenses have realized his limitations.
He's a pretty easy QB to defend because he doesn't have the arm to beat you in the mid, long, or deep passing game. His accuracy beyond 10 yards isn't good (see the backbreaking pass against Oregon that was intercepted....the receiver was open and had some YAC in front of him so it was probably a 10 point swing before the half). Maybe OC Smith isn't calling enough plays with the TE as the primary read (like the TD pass to Perkins @ Cal) but I'm thinking Miles doesn't see the field all that well and locks onto Mickens too much.
When he feels pressure, he tends to run into it rather than showing escapability. If he was a good runner, he'd hurt teams in the read option and running when teams drop 7 or 8 when no one is open yet he has just 10 yards on 28 carries this year. At least when Oregon was going into Cover 2 and Cover 3 against Williams, Williams recognized it quickly and ended up running for 28 yards and a TD on 5 carries.
If Miles is cleared to play and Petersen starts him to give him one last shot, at best I see him being marginally successful and Petersen turning to Williams for the second half.
Williams looked like he had some quicks, but again, it was garbage time. Miley had nice runs in garbage time and against BYU last year. He had 200 yards in limited playing time. He had over 100 yards rushing in his first two starts this year. I along with many other have been wondering why the coaches hardly ever call QB runs. The few times we have ran option, it has worked. Miley keeping the zone read was a real threat the first few weeks of the season and either we stopped doing it or Miley insists on handing it off every time. All 3 QB's are at least decent runners. It's a head scratcher and part of the reason I question this offense.
It's looking like Williams is getting his chance this weekend. I'm looking forward to it. Jonathon Smith was pretty complimentary of his improvement in practice and said he's been real accurate lately. Smith said he had really talent with his arm.
Haven't finished the pod, but there was a lengthy discussion regarding Miles, his quality (or lack thereof), and Williams. Lots of "idiots" being thrown around out there ... but I think that there were a few things that were not noted that definitely should be discussed/considered when looking into this situation:
1) As Race has noted, Miles isn't the guy. The QB position is the most important position on the field. The question we need to ask is whether or not we can see a path with Miles to being a QB capable of competing for a conference championship. I'm not necessarily talking about this season. I'm talking about at any point over the next 2 years. Is there a path for him to be able to improve enough to be that QB? If so, then I think you stick by him, continue to build up his confidence, put him in positions to be successful, and continue working forward to him being the man over the next two years. If not, then I think you have to strongly consider what your options will be outside of him.
2) We've beaten the dead horse that Miles can best be described as a game manager at this point. Arguably his best skill as a QB at this point is avoiding turnovers. However, the downside to that is that Miles doesn't make any kind of play needed out of the position to make winning plays. He's playing the loser's game instead of the winner's game.
3) While I don't think that our running game is particularly good, I think that Miles hurts the running game because of the throws that he appears to be unable to make. Miles shows a continuous inability to not make throws in the intermediate passing game due to a lack of accuracy, at times arm strength, and in particular due to an inability to read, recognize, and throw with anticipation. By the time he realizes that those throws are there, the window closes and he's unable to make that throw. Defensively, it allows teams to focus on the short offense (running and bubble screens) and worry only about John Ross going deep. This lack of a threat to the defense 10-20 yards from the LOS in my opinion is the biggest hurdle for our offense.
4) With respect to Williams, the question that I think it's difficult for any of us to really answer is how close to Miles he is on the depth chart. Looking back to where he was in August and how he compared to Lindy to me is no longer relevant. He's passed Lindy on the depth chart. As a RS Frosh, we would expect him to continue growing as a QB - so passing Lindy shouldn't be viewed as a negative but instead a positive. What follows from that is the question as to what Williams' ceiling is. At this point, I think we're seeing that Miles isn't growing as a QB. Does getting Williams playing time accelerate his development in reaching his ceiling?
5) We know that for this team to win, we need the defense to play at a high level. Does mediocre at best offensive play stemming from a Miles led attack run the risk of demoralizing the defense?
A couple of other questions/thoughts to ponder:
At what point do we start the process of turning over and developing for 2015? There appears to be a need to have more culture changes taking place to get the "Sark" out of the program.
One other huge issue that has been identified on this team is a general lack of player-led leadership. I don't get the sense that Miles has command or leadership of the offense or team. Not saying that Williams does, but I'm also very interested to see how he would handle the opportunity if presented to him.
Lots of things need to improve in this program, but one of the biggest things we need to try to get ironed out heading into 2015 is certainty and leadership coming from the QB position. IMO, we can't be in a position heading into the offseason where the QB position is still tremendously unsettled. We need to know going into the offseason whether or not Miles is the guy or not. If he isn't, we need to get some data points out there to figure out if Williams is. If he proves that he isn't, then that will give Carta-Samuels and/or Browning a greater opportunity to come in and have a stronger voice and take command if they can pull it off. We need a QB that is buying into everything that Pete is preaching and has the command and leadership in place to drive that down to all of the players, particularly during the offseason.
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or RG Atoe will be on the bench. When Criste came in @ Oregon, where did he play?
It's looking like Williams is getting his chance this weekend. I'm looking forward to it. Jonathon Smith was pretty complimentary of his improvement in practice and said he's been real accurate lately. Smith said he had really talent with his arm.